Friday, April 17, 2009

Pirate Bay, beaten but not dead...

On 31 January 2008, Swedish prosecutors filed charges against four individuals they associated with The Pirate Bay, a torrent tracking website, for "promoting other people's infringements of copyright laws". The charges are supported by a consortium of intellectual rights holders led by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), who have filed individual compensation claims against the owners of The Pirate Bay.

The trial started on 16 February 2009 in the district court (tingsrätt) of Stockholm, Sweden. The hearings ended on 3 March 2009 and the verdict was announced at 11:00 AM on Friday 17 April 2009: Peter Sunde, Fredrik Neij, Gottfrid Svartholm and Carl Lundstrom were all found guilty and sentenced to one year in prison and payment of a fine of 30 million SEK (app. $3,620,000). The defendants will appeal the verdict.The Pirate Bay refers to the trial as an event they've dubbed 'Spectrial', which is a portmanteau of trial and spectacle, and have set up a blog to inform users on the event. The term has also caught on with some bloggers and supporters.

The Swedish national television broadcaster Sveriges Television considers the trial important and provides a live online feed of the entire trial, which has never been done in Sweden before. The live audio and archive sections done in cooperation with Dagens Eko are part of the 24 Direkt program, which became one of their most viewed online content during the trial, second only to Melodifestivalen. The trial was also broadcast live by Swedish public radio.

The defendants are Fredrik Neij, Gottfrid Svartholm, Peter Sunde, who run the site; and Carl Lundström, a Swedish businessman who through his businesses has sold services to the site. The prosecutor claims the four worked together to administer, host, and develop the site and thereby facilitated other people's breach of copyright law. 34 cases of copyright infringements were originally listed all told, of which 21 are related to music files, nine to movies, and four to games. One case involving music files was later dropped by the copyright holder who made the file available again on the website of The Pirate Bay. In addition, claim for damages of 117 million kronor (US$13 million) have been filed. The case is decided jointly by a judge and three appointed laymen.